Tallying up the disgrace
by make-mine-a-kiaora
Summary: Spoilers for season 6 up to and including 6x09 'My Blue Heaven'. Cho reflects on progress post Red John's demise. One instance of swearing.


**_Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with 'The Mentalist' and have no rights to the characters or the show and make no money from fanfiction._**

**_Acknowledgements: Thank you to Sue Shay and Cumberland River Relic for beta reading and for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this story._**

_Author Note: Being UK based, I am behind in the story. Episode 6x6 airs here tonight. I am broadly aware of where things are headed based on spoilers, but don't have the full information. Therefore this may be more AU than anticipated._

Cho leaned back in his seat, swivelling a little as he tapped the fingers of his left hand with his pen. They had done well in the last few weeks; a slew of new arrests to add to those already taken down.

Today was the last Friday in September, so it was time to take stock of progress once more. Twenty-two months had gone by since the demise of that bastard McAllister. In that time, Cho reminded himself, he and his new team had stopped 4 copycat murderers and made real progress in dismantling the 'Blake Association'. It was horrifying when you added it all up but someone had to do it.

Ninety five corrupt cops had been found in the former CBI. Including people he'd seen at the gym and the supervisor he'd once reported to in the rapid response unit, former agent Wade… He could still recall how angry she'd been when he went up against her to protect the heavily pregnant Summer; how she'd dropped him from the unit. Ironic really, considering where Wade had had her paws.

And then, of course, there was Bertram, but at least he hadn't survived long enough to cause problems post CBI. It was sickening to think that the organisation to which Cho had given 14 years of his life had been as teaming with maggots as a three day old hamburger left in a park trash bin.

And the CBI looked pristine compared with the FBI, though at least they were serious about cleaning house, which just about made things bearable here. Alexa Schultz's head had rolled, unsurprisingly. She was even more tarnished than Bertram and looked to have been one of McAllister's main lieutenants. She had certainly acted as a major security leak, worse even than Brenda Shettrick had been, and was implicated in a number of suspicious deaths. She wouldn't be seeing the light of day as a free woman again and that was less than she deserved.

If all that wasn't enough, a couple of dirty State Senators had been brought down. Cho had almost forgotten about them, given that it had been over a year ago.

And there were potential issues in Homeland Security too, though that wasn't an investigation to which the Cho or his team was privy.

The Blake corruption wasn't even limited to California. Tentacles had spread all over the western part of the USA, and perhaps even as far as Wyoming, though the worst of it was in California and Nevada. Thankfully they hadn't yet found any overseas connections, but perhaps that was only a matter of time. All in all, 3467 law enforcement officers, drawn from across the ranks and pay grades, 553 CSI technicians and 389 judges had been charged and convicted. And a further 1738 people had walked, probably wrongly, based on insufficient evidence for a conviction. It was nauseating. Demoralising. Relentless. Like digging up the backyard of a murder house just to find that another was built next door. And then finding that they extended all the way down the street.

Cho leaned forward again, tapping the spacebar to launch his e-mails. If only they still had Jane. The Association was severely damaged. That was certain. Perhaps destroyed enough to sink into obscurity, but you never turned your back on a corpse till you were sure he was dead. With the scale and reach of the corruption, damaged just wasn't good enough; and there was only one person with enough skill and tenacity to break open the knotty little termite nests that remained. Or to get to the bottom of the still elusive Visualise connection. And that was Jane.

Cho sighed as he skimmed over the two new e-mails before logging out for the evening. Jane could have rid the whole State of California, and perhaps half the USA (or more depending on the Visualise thing) of these low lifes but Jane was a wanted fugitive because he had killed McAllister. How ironic. Yes, it was within the letter of the law that McAllister deserved to die for all the evil he had perpetrated; and yes, it was a given that any trial, because of the Association reach, would have been a mockery; and also that Jane had suffered dreadfully both with the death of his family and in the subsequent cat and mouse game. But Jane had still killed an apparently unarmed and wounded man, after very publicly announcing his plans to get revenge. And that just wasn't done.

An impasse. One man's honest 'corruption' and murder of a stinking scumbag set against the mass murder perpetrated by said scumbag and the almost complete destruction of California's entire legal system. Not to mention about 60% of Nevada's. And the ramifications across the whole country, in terms of how deeply public trust had been shaken in both law enforcement and the judiciary - something which might never be overcome.

Sighing, Cho got to his feet, clipping on his badge and gun and pulling on his jacket. Time to get outta this joint and get ready for his date tonight with Stella. If Rigsby had still been around, he'd have been teased relentlessly about seeing the hot blonde from Narcotics but, these days, nobody he worked with knew or cared what he did outside of the office. How he wished he was back in Sacramento with Lisbon and the guys, not shunted off to the Austin, Texas branch of the FBI under Abbott's hostile gaze. But then again, at least he still had a decent job.

Small mercies.


End file.
